Kathy Anderson / The Times-PicayuneHarry Shearer will appear with Walter Isaacson, John Larroquette and Wendell Pierce (among others) in Denver to host the New Orleans All-Star Jam-balaya, a concert-and-culture event timed to kick off the Democratic National Convention.

Political satire makes strange bedfellows.

One of the ace studio musicians playing on Harry Shearer's new CD -- "Songs of the Bushmen," a scathing, names-naming send-up of Bush administration insiders and their deeds -- is guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, whose second life includes working as a Department of Defense consultant specializing in missile-defense systems.

Safe to say, Baxter and Shearer, a part-time New Orleans resident who has a hand in seemingly endless projects at any one time, don't share many of the same political views.

"I was amazed he wanted to come in and do it," Shearer said.

Baxter, a founding member of Steely Dan who later joined the Doobie Brothers -- and whose playing also can be heard on records by Sheryl Crow, Ringo Starr and Donna Summer, among others -- got the studio call at the suggestion of producer Jeffrey Foskett (who's also a Brian Wilson collaborator and accompanist).

"Songs of the Bushmen"

Partisan in the extreme, "Songs of the Bushmen" isn't a Katrina- or levees- or Brownie-centric collection. Rather, Shearer goes beyond the storm for a tuneful, two-term evisceration.

"Concept album" is not a concept that appeals to many music fans of a certain age.

I was in college in the 1970s, so I've heard 'em all, and I'd argue that Frank Sinatra's "Come Fly With Me" was the first and last great concept album ever. Shearer nominates its follow-up, "Come Dance With Me," for inclusion in the short list, too, but Emerson, Lake & Palmer's "Tarkus"?

Or, for that matter, Spinal Tap's "The Sun Never Sweats"?

Not remembered so fondly. ("Sweats" is, admittedly, fictional.)

"Bushmen" didn't start out a "concept album."

"I had been writing different kinds of songs for the radio show, and it struck me that I'd kind of accumulated a bunch of songs about people who had worked in this administration, and it was coming closer to the end, and (that) if I wrote a few more I would have a record's worth," Shearer said. "The last CD I did was sort of combination of satirical and just kind of goofy songs. I thought something that was more focused might be a nice change.

"At no time during the making of this record did I ever think of 'Come Fly With Me,'" he said. "Or 'Tarkus' for that matter."

Shearer said he picks a musical genre before penning specific lyrics. Example: The idea to set a Colin Powell song (title: "Smooth Moves") to smooth jazz came to Shearer while en route to the Grammy Awards ceremony earlier this year (where his CD "Songs Pointed and Pointless" was nominated for Best Comedy Album).

"I didn't think I was going to win (and I didn't)," he said. "I was in a grumpy mood."
Making the ride worse was that the driver had his radio tuned to smooth jazz.

"My first impulse was to say, 'Turn that crap off,'" Shearer said. "But right at that time I had been thinking about what to do about the Colin Powell song. 'Reggae? No.'

"That was an 'A-ha!' experience. 'Smooth jazz. Of course.' That gave me the genre, then the idea of the title came to me shortly after that. Then I knew how to write the lyrics."
In addition to Baxter, Shearer also enlisted another studio star, saxophonist Tom Scott, to play on "Songs of the Bushmen."

"I can, at this point, bank a little bit on the goodwill that Spinal Tap has," Shearer said. "There's a goodly reservoir to draw on.

"I've known Tom Scott since he was 18 years old, and we've been acquaintances and friends, and I just called Tom up and said, 'Tom, Dave Koz isn't available, and you probably know how to do this,'" Shearer said. "Both parts of that sentence made him laugh, so he agreed to do it."

-- Dave Walker

"Jeffrey said, 'I'm gonna call Skunk,'" Shearer said. "The guy was just a dream to work with. A guy at that level, regardless of what else he does with his life, still enjoying playing that much and saying what a ball it was to play and how that's what he really wants to do -- come back and play full time -- was very sweet, oddly enough."

Bush partisans will not think the same of the album, which dedicates cuts to Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz, to name a few..

As savage as his satire can be, Shearer backs it up with action, especially when it comes to New Orleans and its recovery needs.

Sunday night, he'll join Walter Isaacson, John Larroquette and Wendell Pierce (among others) in Denver to host the New Orleans All-Star Jam-balaya, a concert-and-culture event timed to kick off the Democratic National Convention.

On Sept. 1, a similar event will precede the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn. WWOZ FM 90.7 will air live 8 p.m. broadcasts of both shows.

The planned music for the Denver show will be performed by an all-star lineup -- including the Soul Rebels Brass Band, the Wild Tchoupitoulas, George Porter Jr., Donald Harrison Jr., Trombone Shorty, Big Sam, James Andrews, Irma Thomas, Marva Wright, Allen Toussaint and Terence Blanchard -- but Shearer said the evening's mission stretches far beyond entertainment.

A fundraiser for the nonprofit, nonpartisan Friends of New Orleans advocacy group, the show also is intended, he said, as a forum to spotlight rebuilding efforts and the dire need to improve levee protection and restore coastal wetlands.

Kathy Anderson / The Times-Picayune"That was something that I was very explicit about from the get-go. We don't need any enhancement to our reputation as a place that knows how to throw a party. We've got that..." said Harry Shearer of his involvement in the Democratic National Convention festivities.

"It is, in fact, a fundraising event. (But) I don't feel that can be the sole purpose of the event," Shearer said. "I feel that we're in a sense carrying the flag, and we have to do right by (the recovery).

"That was something that I was very explicit about from the get-go. We don't need any enhancement to our reputation as a place that knows how to throw a party. We've got that. So, anything that we do, I think, has to go beyond that, and I think it's fair to say that I've been fairly persistent, if not obnoxious, on the subject of 'How do we get the seriousness of our purpose across in this kind of chaotic, not-necessarily-controlled environment?'

"I was concerned about that. I remain concerned about that. I'm reviewing all the materials that are going to be going out there on this score, if for no other reason that I live a good part of the year in New Orleans, and I have to be responsible for this when I see people that I know, and people that I don't know, in town.

"I want to be proud of what we did."

It's no surprise, then, that Shearer will show up as a friend of the Friends of New Orleans.

"The most successful thing (Friends of New Orleans) has done is to act as a conduit to people outside who want to know how (they) can help, who's doing what, and connecting them with neighborhood organizations or the groups actually getting something done," Shearer said. "It's very hard, as everybody who travels outside knows, when people ask you that catch-all question 'How's it going down there?' to include both the good and bad news.

"I think the organization has tried to emphasize the good news about what people are accomplishing, but also point out what still needs to be done on a larger scale."

Staging an event like the Jam-balaya at national political conventions would seem to open the door to unfocused bashing of the powers-that-be for what they did to, and are still doing to, New Orleans.

On that subject, Shearer is nonpartisan.

"There's plenty of blame (for New Orleans' condition) to go around," he said. "That's why the issue has not gotten the attention some of us think it deserves. There's no political advantage to either party by pointing at the other one and saying, 'It's your fault.' That's exactly why we're in the mess we're in. It is a bipartisan problem, and neither side gains juice by making noise about it.

"You're constantly making these distinctions. The cause of the event (failed levees) is bipartisan in nature, (but) the horrible disorganization of the (immediate) response can fairly be laid at the foot of the incumbent administration. That's an objective distinction.

"In the case of the response, that's happened, and there's not much to do about it."

In the case of the levee-failure-flooding, Shearer added, the same entity that built the fall-down levees is overseeing their upgrading, and the Army Corps of Engineers accordingly requires careful civilian observation.

"It would be nice to know that things are better this time around," he said.